Red wolf

The red wolf (Canis rufus) is distinguished from the gray wolf (Canis lupus) and the coyote (Canis latrans) by size and coloring. Intermediate in size between coyotes and gray wolves, red wolves average 45-80 pounds. They are mostly brown and buff colored sometimes with red shading around their ears, muzzle, and the backs of their legs. Red wolves are known to hunt individually and in packs, eating white-tailed deer, raccoons and small mammals such as rabbits and rodents. They have also been known to prey on domestic pets and livestock, but in very small numbers. Similar to gray wolves, red wolves live in the social structure of a pack, with a defended territory, an alpha breeding pair and older offspring to assist with pup rearing.

Scientific studies disagree over whether the red wolf is indeed a separate species, a subspecies of the gray wolf, or hybrid between gray wolves and coyotes. However, based on the available research the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has legally designated the red wolf, Canis rufus, a distinct species. Thus far, petitions to delist the red wolf on grounds that it is a hybrid have been defeated, and Canis rufus remains a protected species under federal law in the United States. To further complicate the issue, work on wolves in Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada suggest that wolves there are closely related to the red wolf. Researchers working in the park argue that the red wolf and eastern timber wolf should be joined as a species separate from the gray wolf. The debate is likely to continue for some time.

Regardless of its exact taxonomic designation, the red wolf is an animal with unique characteristics that add to the overall biodiversity of our wild lands. Under the Endangered Species Act, red wolves are considered endangered and are classified as experimental and nonessential, which minimizes the infringement on private landowner rights, yet provides managers the important tools to reintroduce and manage the species.

The red wolf recovery project in the eastern US has differed from gray wolf reintroduction projects in the western states. Unlike gray wolves, red wolves face an imminent threat of extinction. There are no wild populations of red wolves outside of the eastern US. The fact that gray wolves still exist in large numbers in the wild throughout the northern hemisphere has facilitated studying them. Until recently, research on red wolves was limited to studying captive animals and the few wolves that once roamed wild in Texas and Louisiana. Options for red wolf release sites are limited due to the dense human population of eastern states and lack of large tracts of undeveloped lands within their historic range. Although human development has certainly increased throughout the gray wolves' range as well, public lands and wilderness areas in the US and Canada offer suitable options for expanding the gray wolf's territory.

Red wolves were once well established as a top predator throughout the Southeast. Their original range is believed to be the entire eastern forested region of North America from southeastern Canada to the Gulf Coast. By 1920 the red wolf had been extirpated in most of the southern states and by 1970 less than 100 red wolves remained in the entire US, confined to a small area of coastal Texas and Louisiana. Early bounties and indiscriminate killing started the rapid decline of red wolves. Loss of habitat added to this decline in the mid 1900s as people cleared land for roads, livestock, agriculture, logging and mining.

Red wolf recovery initially focused on preserving and expanding the remaining wild red wolf population. However, as red wolf populations spiraled downward, coyote populations expanded eastward and established a foothold in areas that had been dominated by wolves. When the few remaining red wolves failed to find mates of their own species, many mated with coyotes. As this hybridization increased, the number of genetically pure red wolves decreased, further accelerating the decline of the red wolf. As a result, recovery efforts shifted in focus to capturing and breeding red wolves in captivity with a goal of future reintroduction. By 1980 the last red wolf was captured and the species was declared extinct in the wild.

Captive breeding has now preserved genetically pure red wolves. The red wolf recovery plan's goal is to maintain 330 genetically pure wolves in captivity and 220 wolves in the wild, within at least three self-sustaining populations.

With successful breeding, captive animals were first released in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, ARNWR, in northeastern North Carolina in 1987. ARNWR was an ideal site for reintroduction because it is surrounded on three sides by large bodies of water and there are low densities of humans, livestock and coyotes. This minimized concerns over wolf predation on livestock and cross breeding with coyotes. Within their first year in ARNWR the wolves successfully produced their first litter of pups in the wild. By 1993 captive wolves had also been successfully released in the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in TN, and on three island propagation sites off the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.

Reintroduction in northeastern North Carolina has been a success, with a population of about 100 free-ranging wolves as of April 2000. Efforts in the Great Smoky Mountains, however, have been less successful. No pups are known to have survived in the eight-year recovery effort, and the released wolves failed to establish home ranges within park boundaries. Reintroduction in the park was controversial from the start because of bordering livestock operations. Red wolves were responsible for depredation of a few calves on a lease operation within the park. The wolves were regularly seen on the outskirts of residential areas. Twenty-six of the 37 red wolves released in the Great Smoky Mountains between 1992 and 1996 died or were recaptured after straying outside of park boundaries onto private lands. Biologists suspect scarcity of food within the park was responsible for the wolves' wandering, and disease, parasites and malnutrition were likely responsible for unusually high pup mortality. In October of 1998, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service announced plans to recapture all red wolves that remained in the park and relocate them to northeastern North Carolina, ending efforts to restore red wolves in the Great Smoky Mountains. Horn Island was removed from the island propagation program that same year because of increasing probability of interactions with humans.

Today, due to an aggressive preservation effort mandated by the Endangered Species Act, red wolf numbers are slowly rising, and they again roam wild through parts of their historic range in eastern North America. As of April 2000, there were nearly 100 red wolves in the wild in Eastern North Carolina (65 of these wolves are radiocollared and tracked). Twelve packs made dens in 2000 and 7 had litters of pups. In addition, 3 red wolf/coyote hybrid litters were born. By January of 2001 there was a mated pair on each of the two island propagation sites off the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. In addition, there were around 156 in captive breeding facilities throughout the country.

The future of the red wolf is not yet secure. More than half of the population exists in captivity, and efforts to reintroduce them continually face challenges.